Post 2

Hooked on Classroom Blogging, by Rachel Peters. (March/April 2009)

In this article Rachel Peters recounts her experience using blogs as a means to communicate with her class while she was in Vietnam helping Earthwatch Institute study butterfly diversity and population changes. Peters noted that this activity would provide an excellent opportunity for both her and her students to develop a better understanding of Vietnam, both it's geographical and human selves. Much like the article on using chat, Peters believe that a blog provided a similar real-time experience which would increase the interest of her children and this inspire them to become more willing to learn about the topic. Prior to leaving, Peters involved he class in many of aspects of her trip, including the food she would encounter, travel arrangements, and even games to help remember the local geography. Peters notes that she used Google's blogger to set up her blog. Peters had to think of a good way to hook 9 to 10-year olds on her blog, so the more traditional set-up of her husbands blogs seemed ill adapted to the task. Instead, Peters eventually learned to get her readers involved in the blog by adding quizzes and rewards, generating more interest and a desire to get involved from her students. This as a whole seemed like an excellent way to get her students involved in her study in Vietnam, and despite early problems with lack of excitement, she clearly adapted to her audience with wonderful results.

I certainly like the idea using a blog such as this to aid my students in learning more about the world through my eyes. However, I would like to expand these views to my students as well. As part of expanding on their understanding of different perspectives and the lives of others, I would consider assigning students to each create their own blog post about their family, or about a trip they took, or anything they wanted to share with the class. This could be done in the same way that current "show and tell" projects are done, only using a blog format to allow fellow students to see the information and pictures related to their peers whenever they wanted, and allow for comments on their own experiences.